The opioid ‘crisis’

I am concerned that declaring the opioid crisis a national emergency will serve primarily to increase law-enforcement budgets, precipitating an escalation of this same sort of routine racial discrimination. […]

It is certainly possible to die from an overdose of an opioid alone, but this accounts for a minority of the thousands of opioid-related deaths. Many are caused when people combine an opioid with another sedative (such as alcohol), an antihistamine (such as promethazine) or a benzodiazepine (such as Xanax or Klonopin). People are not dying because of opioids; they are dying because of ignorance.

146 comments to The opioid ‘crisis’

Marcy Wheeler at The Intercept says George Papadopoulos’ plea agreement implicates Attorney General Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions. AG Sessions was photographed at a March 31, 2016 discussion in which Papadopoulos said he was soliciting Putin for a meeting with Trump for reasons that could only be related to the upcoming election:

October 30 2017…Sessions has repeatedly testified to the Senate that he knows nothing about any collusion with the Russians. (Though in his most recent appearance, he categorized that narrowly by saying he did not “conspire with Russia or an agent of the Russian government to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.”)

But the Papadopoulos plea shows that Sessions — then acting as Trump’s top foreign policy adviser — was in a March 31, 2016, meeting with Trump, at which Papadopoulos explained “he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and President Putin.” It also shows that Papadopoulos kept a number of campaign officials in the loop on his efforts to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin, though they secretly determined that the meeting “should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal,” itself a sign the campaign was trying to hide its efforts to make nice with the Russians.[…]

Sessions has boasted that “good people don’t smoke marijuana”. Yet this is a man who betrays his country by keeping mum on a conspiracy involving Russian racketeering and influence peddling in a US federal election while later taking every opportunity as AG to rekindle a failed and socially injurious drug war.

Tsar Trump’s most loyal base consists of factions of the religious right, specifically dominionists, who wish for nothing less than to eliminate democracy in favor of a theocracy. Vice-Tsar Michael Richard Pence, an Indiana lawyer and former radio and TV talk show host, is at the vanguard of dominionist politicians, with allies such as Jeff Sessions and every popular Republican congress-person who said God told them to run for public office in 2016.

Dominionist political agendas require a drug war in order to succeed or dominate. The imposition of drug heretication, which has been ongoing since the Middle Ages under the Roman Catholic Church, is one of a number of critical religious strategies designed to eliminate objections and those who object to theocracies by arbitrarily defining virtue, or “good people”, as being only those who refuse to consume illicit drugs. Think of Bill Bennett’s “Book of Virtues” series, a man whose drug war advocacy made him one of America’s most notorious human rights criminals for employing prohibition policies that ultimately decimated inner city neighborhoods.

Unfortunately for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, it now appears his infatuation with dominionist politics and loyalty to Tsar Trump is likely to make him the next John Mitchell.

When Robert Mercer entered Trump’s campaign. It put Trump into the lead and then the office. The Mercers father and daughter act. brought in Bannon, Kelly Ann and Breitbart and suggested Sessions for AG. Now that I’ve seen Trump in action. I find it hard to believe he was their actual choice and not just the stooge in the front of the line. Now letting him run free he has shown he is a stooge and Pence is waiting in the wings. The alt reich could never have won on their own ticket. Pat Robertson is as Dominionated as anyone in the deep dark south. Now he says Trump should pardon everyone and fire Meuller.

Bringing in Ted Cruz with his Dominion’s billions gives them an incentive to attack Palestine for a homeland for jesus. Cruz is the lone survivor of the GOP incumbents they call RINO’s Bannon wants out of Congress for stalling the agenda. They call it Trump’s agenda, but I suspect he’s a useful patsy and not long for the office.

Many of the teabagger lemmings think its a wonderful idea. Mercer also wanted John Bolton as SoS over Tilton. Bolton’s PAC has been advocating war since Cheney Bush. Right when you think its safe to go into the water. Now his Opiodiots Christie and SAM Kennedy claiming Ganja would kill more, being an alternative to opiods that are killing thousands. I thought all this crap was over when the Beatles hit town. While America celebrated with Festivals, Doobies and Rock and Roll. Sessions and the Klan were celebrating the good ole boy days smashing records.

☛ Burn Your Beatles Records!
Early August 1966, Christian groups, primarily in the Southern United States took to the streets to burn the sin out of their beloved Beatles records in response to John Lennon’s remark that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.”

☛ Birmingham disc jockeys.jpg
Tommy Charles, left, and Doug Layton of Radio Station WAQY, rip and break materials representing the British pop group The Beatles, in Birmingham, Ala., Aug. 8, 1966. The broadcasters started a “Ban The Beatles” campaign. AP

Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.

“The mission of the Christian Coalition is simple,” says Pat Robertson. It is “to mobilize Christians — one precinct at a time, one community at a time — until once again we are the head and not the tail, and at the top rather than the bottom of our political system.” Robertson predicts that “the Christian Coalition will be the most powerful political force in America by the end of this decade.” And, “We have enough votes to run this country…and when the people say, ‘We’ve had enough,’ we’re going to take over!”
–Pat Robertson

Given the current problems with overprescribed opioids, owners of drug rehab businesses such as Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson might be expected to be gleefully anticipating a windfall of new income. Instead, Sheldon will likely need to continue his reliance on casino businesses to suck money out of peoples’ pockets. Recent studies and scandals show rehab isn’t for everyone.

1-NOV-2017 — A study from the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has estimated, for the first time, the number of Americans who have overcome serious problems with the use of alcohol or other drugs. More than 9 percent of those responding to their survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults indicated they had previously had such a problem but no longer did, and a little more than half of them reported accomplishing this with some sort of assistance. Only 46 percent of successful respondents considered themselves to be “in recovery.”

Overall, though, the rate of people seeking treatment for marijuana has held steady since Colorado voters made it legal to use and possess small amounts of marijuana — and the rate of people 20 years old and younger seeking treatment has declined.

The finding is among a growing body of evidence that marijuana legalization has led to a shift in use patterns for at least some cannabis consumers, a trend that worries some researchers.

“While we have been arguing about legalization, the country has developed a serious cannabis abuse problem for the first time,” Mark A.R. Kleiman, a New York University professor who studies marijuana legalization, said last year.

The treatment data is just one insight from the new report, which looks at outcomes from tax revenue to impacts on public health to effects on youth.[…]

Chronic pain sufferers and those taking mental health meds would rather turn to cannabis instead of their prescribed opioid medication, according to new research by the University of British Columbia and University of Victoria. “This study is one of the first to track medical cannabis use under the new system of licensed producers, meaning that all participants had physician authorization to access cannabis in addition to their prescription medicines,” says UBC Assoc. Prof. Zach Walsh, co-author of the study.[…]

And finally, drug rehab centers that hype Christian credentials while offering up their patients as slave laborers for businesses are being sued into oblivion. Republican Arkansas state senator Jim Hendren is in trouble for operating a plastics company that exploits Christian drug rehab slave labor:

Nov 01, 2017 — One of myriad reasons that big business loves the big business of private prisons and the “war on drugs” is that it provides them with ample opportunities to exploit cheap labor. In that same vein Christian drug rehabilitation centers have found a way to make “nonprofit” business models very profitable—at least according to a new lawsuit filed against the Drug and Alcohol Recovery Program (DARP) this week.

A third lawsuit has been filed contesting the arrangement by which drug court defendants are sentenced to work unpaid, with pay going to nonprofit agencies.

The lawsuit was first reported this morning in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, but I’ve gotten a comment from a new defendant named in the lawsuit, a company headed by a state senator.

Past complaints, originally disclosed by an investigative reporting project, have detailed how workers have difficult jobs in the poultry industry and live in poor conditions, essentially slave labor, while the operators of the nonprofits enjoy large salaries. Simmons Foods, which recently announced a major expansion subsidized by state tax benefits in Northwest Arkansas, has been a major user of the workers (more than 100 currently, it has said). Today’s lawsuit added another business that uses the workers, Hendren Plastics.

State Sen. Jim Hendren is the name behind Hendren Plastics, and after having a couple of days to see that he was going to be embroiled in an obvious shit show, he’s decided to try to look “pre-emptive,” after the fact.

Sen. Jim Hendren said his company, Hendren Plastics, terminated the agreement with the Drug and Alcohol Recovery Program following a lawsuit filed in Benton County that accused the program of conspiring with businesses to use the clients as free labor.[…]

Republican Arkansas state senator Jim Hendren is trying to play both sides of this coin here as he gives a classic sorry-not sorry explanation:

“I just stopped it this week when I saw some of the allegations, and it’s one of those issues where a company has to make business decisions,” Hendren said, according to the Associated Press. “And the company is going to get put through the wringer for trying to help these kids — you just can’t afford to continue to do it. So I feel bad for some of the kids that I think we had an opportunity to help, but I think you’ll see a lot of companies step out of the program.”

Private prisons have been on the skids the past year or so and are hoping to make big comebacks with the new Republican administration’s pro-private prison system. The use of a Christian work-ethic based “rehabilitation” has been a tea party tenet for quite some time now. Instead of doing possible jail time or having to pay fines they cannot afford, drug offenders can opt into some of these Christian-labor-camps rehabilitation programs. It’s something that helps evangelicals sleep better at night. But it’s exploitation, bordering on slavery. The Oklahoman had a piece focused mostly on the similar Oklahoma-based Christian Alcoholics and Addicts in Recovery (CAAIR) program, earlier this month—also being sued. […]

Spanking young people is being blamed for adverse drug use later in life:

2-NOV-2017 — …A new study by Andrew Grogan-Kaylor and Shawna Lee, both [University of Michigan] associate professors of social work, and colleagues indicates the violence caused by spanking can lead adults to feel depressed, attempt suicide, drink at moderate-to-heavy levels or use illegal drugs.

“Placing spanking in a similar category to physical/emotional abuse experiences would increase our understanding of these adult mental health problems,” Grogan-Kaylor said.[…]

Researchers note that given that both spanking and physical abuse involves the use of force and infliction of pain, as well as being linked with similar mental health outcomes, it raises the question of whether spanking should be considered an adverse childhood experience. This involves abuse, neglect and household dysfunction, which includes divorce and an incarcerated relative.

The study used data from the CDC-Kaiser ACE study, which sampled more than 8,300 people, ranging in age from 19 to 97 years. Study participants completed self-reports while seeking routine health checks at an outpatient clinic.[…]

It seems unlikely that adverse childhood experiences would be the only reason people smoke marijuana, as those lacking ACEs also consume it. Cannabis has its own social and biological dynamics that make it unique among medicinal and/or recreational substances. Magic mushrooms are also unique in many of the same ways. The authors are using a sweeping generalization when they depict drug taking behavior as the exclusive product of a bad childhood. They might have better luck if they focused only on certain drugs, such as opioids.

***

In more science news, Australian scientists have found a drug that reduces binge drinking in mice. If your mice have a drinking problem, you may want to give them (+)-Naltrexone, “which is known to block the immune receptor Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)”:

2-NOV-2017 — …”This drug effectively switched off the impulse in mice to binge drink,” says senior author Professor Mark Hutchinson, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics at the University of Adelaide and leader of the Neuroimmunopharmacology lab in which this work was conducted.

“The mice given this drug still sought out alcohol, but their level of drinking was greatly reduced.”

Professor Hutchinson says this research is among the first of its kind to show a link between the brain’s immune system and later-life problems caused by binge drinking during adolescence.[…]

That’s what we thought when the info was released in 2000. Its not only the government, its the corporate media not informing the public as a free press should. We need a separation of corporations and state along with a separation of religion and state. First we need to take back the media. Or maybe first we need to elect an American instead of corporate shills on both sides of the aisle.

June 06, 2000
26 years ago. In both studies, the THC shrank or destroyed tumors in a majority of the test subjects. Most Americans don’t know anything about the Madrid discovery. Virtually no U.S. newspapers carried the story, which ran only once on the AP and UPI news wires, on Feb. 29.

In 1974 researchers at the Medical College of Virginia, who had been funded by the National Institute of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice — lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced leukemia.

The DEA quickly shut down the Virginia study and all further cannabis/tumor research, In 1976 President Gerald Ford put an end to all public cannabis research and granted exclusive research rights to major pharmaceutical companies, who set out — unsuccessfully — to develop synthetic forms of THC that would deliver all the medical benefits without the “high.”

It actually seems like we have given them authority to suspend the 1st Amendment when speaking about “drugs” or cannabis’ abilities. I’ve heard of people getting 40 year sentences for making false or unproven claims. There target also includes supplements. Of which I believe they will discover is the true nature of Ganja to supplement the ECS endocannabinoid system.

Codex Alimentarius is a dark marriage between pharmaceutical and chemical industries and the WTO, conceived to exact complete and regimented control over all food products and nutrients worldwide. Codex is a complex, global, inter-governmental program, written by Big Pharma, policed by the UN, and consisting of 170 member nations, the United States among them…

Most conventional cancer treatments tend to add insult to injury by doing more harm than good — a fact that has been largely swept under the rug by the medical industry. The real culprits—the underlying causes—are completely ignored, and that is, I believe, the root of the problem. The cancer industry has become a massive for-profit business that is doing everything in its power to maintain the status quo. It is, quite simply, not interested in truly reducing cancer rates; it’s interested in treating cancer.

and they wonder why we kneel down
during the racist nationalist anthem?

UC Santa Cruz physicists Sue Carter and Glenn Alers have developed a smart greenhouse, a plus for marijuana cultivation, although cannabis isn’t mentioned:

3-NOV-2017 — …Electricity-generating solar greenhouses utilize Wavelength-Selective Photovoltaic Systems (WSPVs), a novel technology that generates electricity more efficiently and at less cost than traditional photovoltaic systems. These greenhouses are outfitted with transparent roof panels embedded with a bright magenta luminescent dye that absorbs light and transfers energy to narrow photovoltaic strips, where electricity is produced. WSPVs absorb some of the blue and green wavelengths of light but let the rest through, allowing the plants to grow. WSPV technology was developed by coauthors Sue Carter and Glenn Alers, both professors of physics at UC Santa Cruz, who founded Soliculture in 2012 to bring the technology to market.

Loik’s team monitored photosynthesis and fruit production across 20 varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, lemons, limes, peppers, strawberries, and basil grown in magenta glasshouses at two locations on campus and one in Watsonville, California.

“Eighty percent of the plants weren’t affected, while 20 percent actually grew better under the magenta windows,” said Loik. Tomatoes and cucumbers are among the top greenhouse-produced crops worldwide, he said.[…]

Greenhouses use electricity to control temperature and power fans, lights, and other monitoring systems. “This technology has the potential to take greenhouses offline,” said Loik, who specializes in climate change, plant physiology, water resources, and sustainable technologies. Cost per panel of WSPV technology is 65 cents per watt–about 40 percent less than the per-watt cost of traditional silicon-based photovoltaic cells.

I’ve been waiting decades for this. I’ve long held that so long as prohibition’s supporters remain free of legal punishment for disseminating lies about cannabis, the prohibition will continue. Those lies will finally be exposed in a venue where disseminating such lies have severe consequences. And given that the US Gub’mint holds a patent on the medicinal qualities of cannabis (#6630507) Uncle Sam’s prohib minions may have finally been painted into the corner.

You haven’t actually read that bogus patent, have you kaptin? Perhaps I’m wrong and we have different opinions of crap synthetic cannabinoids like HU-210 and HU-211? Because 6630507 says if you can’t get the real thing at least one of those two is a perfectly fine substitute.

6630507 is worthless old man. You did know that a patent is just a glorified time stamp, not some kind of government certification that the patented item actually works or has any commercial value, right?

Because 6630507 says if you can’t get the real thing at least one of those two is a perfectly fine substitute.

That the patent exists at all, and stands in refutation of so much of Gub’mint propaganda, is the most salient point. A government admission regarding the medical efficacy of cannabinoids was itself a game-changer. And given the context in which is happened, doubly so.

The patent was issued in 2003. Recall that this was around the time that the Number Two at the ONDCP, ‘Dr.’ Andrea Barthwell, was in the process of changing her propaganda tune from ‘marijuana has no medicinal value’ and was a ‘cruel hoax’, to ‘only smoked marijuana had no medicinal value’ and was a ‘cruel hoax’.

This was just prior to her jumping from the Gub’mint ship and landing in GW Pharma’s arms, the same GW Pharma that had made Sativex and was seeking several national governments legal sanctions against those government’s citizens from growing their own medicine and thus forced to buy their products. From Corporate Cannabis:

Guy’s warning was reiterated shortly after I arrived in England to interview him, when Mark Rogerson, GW’s grey-templed, elegantly dressed, public-relations man, met me at the Oxford train station. “Once it’s approved and Sativex becomes a medicine under the law, there needs to be a minor change in legislation so it can be prescribed,” he said, as he steered his Hyundai (his Audi was in the shop) into near-gridlock. “The Home Office has already said they will do that, and then patients will be taking a legal medicine. But if you are an MS sufferer, it would still be illegal for you to grow cannabis at the bottom of the garden to treat your symptoms. Our medicine will be legal, but anything else will not be.”

Interesting, no?

6630507 is worthless old man. You did know that a patent is just a glorified time stamp, not some kind of government certification that the patented item actually works or has any commercial value, right?

The timing of both the patent being granted and Barthwell’s change of policy tack and then leaving ‘public service’ for a more lucrative position in the private industry that needed that patent to exist was hardly coincidental. The ‘government certification’ implied by the patent was all the schemers needed to justify their proceedings; medical efficacy had been proven practically in such matters as anti-emesis for chemo patients as far back as the 1970’s. The rest has fallen into place via science finding more and more medicinal uses for cannabis.

Because of that patent, Sessions et. al. are walking into a minefield. Despite what you imply, it is hardly a small matter.

I’m not questioning the medicinal potential of cannabinoids, individually or whole plant which I prefer. Of coarse to anyone with a toddlers brain its obvious Ganja has medicinal value. But its moot since nothing is recognized to sell as a treatment until the FDA gives its seal of approval. Which it hasn’t even tested so until it does the cops can disregard the cries of the patients and legally state it has no medicinal value and the laws based on that, stand. As well as Reich case killing the 10th Amendment.

The only purpose of patents were to keep Spain and Israel from developing products to sell in the US, off the market here. GW is still not selling here. Thats why all DEA lawsuits have ended with it remaining a schedule#1. The last the judge determined the plaintiffs were correct in assessing the DEA was arbitrary and capricious. So what, its their job to be. Never changed a damn thing as well as all of the states changing a damn thing federally.

Perpetuating the trillion dollar Ganjawar is the end goal. The only thing keeping Ganja as the cornerstone of the $trillion drug war is censorship and lies. No matter how many patents, that definitely tells me or you it has medicinal value. Its moot to prove it has unless the laws change on what determines anything to be a medicine. Under CODEX any supplement or drug has to be approved by the FDA who has never in 45 years tested Ganja, until GW and then some others testing cannabinoids or GWs Sativex whole plant that isn’t smoked.

Same shuck and jive as comparing Ganja smoke to cigarettes. The IOM never tested users or Ganja, just a re-evaluation of previous studies from La Guardia to the Indian Hemp Commission. Only comparing Ganja smoke to what came out on cigs even though Ganja is without the added chemicals. The dictionary in 1952 said it was good for spasms. It was listed in the US Pharmacopia until 1941. Thousands of years of medicinal use for anyone to see. Just not use without FDAs okay. Until it is approved it is just a weed.

That is what I’ve been harping on about lowering it to a schedule#2 will only free up Big Pharma to cannibalize the plant into sellable parts. Or an application that isn’t smoke. This is what makes it corporatism or fascism, and not free enterprise or logic or even reality.

Yes we have always been right and that and $5 will get you a fancy coffee at Starbucks I’m told. I’ve never personally set foot in the place. Its so weird its like the DEA says planes can’t fly because they are too heavy. We know they fly, we’ve probably flown in them but until they give it a seal of approval. Planes can’t fly. Anyone caught flying in a plane will be busted.

The Mother of Invention changed with the Neocons. Its no longer necessity, or even the needs of the people, its the profits. Profits pay Science to discover more profits not cures or prevention taking profits. Not affordable housing or health care. Common sense is the enemy of the Ganjawar.

Abstract
Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention.

Not ‘might be’
Not ‘could be’
But ‘are found to have’. About as clear an admission as you can hope for in acknowledging medical efficacy.

As to the referred compounds:

Some of the research on these antagonists has focused on cannabinoids, a subset of which have been found to be NMDA receptor antagonists. U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,993 (3S,4S-delta-6-tetrahydrocannabinol-7-oic acids), U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,215 (sterospecific (+) THC enantiomers), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,867 (dimethylheptyl benzopyrans) have reported that these cannabinoids are effective NMDA receptor blockers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,295 discloses that the 1,1 dimethylheptyl (DMH) homolog of [3R,4R]-7-hydroxy-Δ6THC (known as HU-210) is a superpotent cannabinoid receptor agonist with cannabinomimetic activity two orders of magnitude greater than the natural Δ9 THC. The HU-210 dimethylheptyl cannabinoid, has severe side effects, including fatigue, thirst, headache, and hypotension. J. Pharmacol. Sci. 60:1433-1457 (1971). Subjects who received this synthetic cannabinoid with a dimethylheptyl group experienced marked psychomotor retardation, and were unwilling or incapable of assuming an erect position. In contrast to HU-210, the (−)(3R,4R) THC-DMH enantiomer (known as HU-211) displays low affinity to the cannabinoid receptors, but retains NMDA receptor antagonist neuroprotective activity.

The further you read, the more obvious it is that this patent is a grudging, querulous admission that cannabis has medicinal properties. The submission date of this patent is 1999. Recall the Institute of Medicine’s report on cannabis was also that year. So, government officials (who were, it is safe to assume, knew of the filed patent) were lying through their teeth while insisting on repeating the ‘party line’ of cannabis having no medicinal uses. When Sessions gets to the docket and must swear under oath that all he says is true, he will have, as the old saying goes, ‘some ‘slpainin’ to do’.

imo The patents were taken to remove it from the market after Spain came up with the brain tumor shrinkage research the DEA banned in 74. I suppose you could say in this case the patent isn’t for the DEA making money. Its for keeping the schedule#1 in place. The timeline was 17 years for patents if memory serves. Maybe that’s before generic brands can sell.

Same illogical fascist bullshit that keeps the DEA and all other cops legally busting people in spite of millions finding relief from Ganja and nothing from merdinol or the other isolated synthetic cannabinoids/diols. In spite of 20,000 research papers filed and not one with the FDA.

Fascism, fascism, fascism. Maybe Americans will wake up, but after 45 years of not questioning authority it seems like most politicians have taken a heavy dose of Ambian, along with the media. The drug of choice by NIDA if you are having trouble withdrawing from Ganja.

This lawsuit with Marvin Washington has two more joining him. A child with Epilepsy and a Vet told he couldn’t use Ganja for PTSD. Its a 1st but again, the drug war is a fascist act and the Constitution is an old parchment collecting dust in their eyes. I’m optimistic, what else is there? 45 years of government guano. I think the truth would turn them all to stoners like looking at Medusa. Med USA?.

Since we seem to never get any useful information out of the United States FDA, NIDA or DEA concerning cannabinoids cancer treatments, researchers Bogdanović Višnja, Mrdjanović Jasminka, and Borišev Ivana at the University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia, have come to our partial rescue by kindly providing us with A Review of the Therapeutic Antitumor Potential of Cannabinoids from which cannabis’ anti-cancer potential is summarized and explained in the following excerpt:

August 11, 2017 –…Cannabinoids have been shown to possess potent anticancer activity in multiple human and animal cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. (5,7,8-10). These substances are thought to influence tumor growth through various mechanisms, predominantly by induction of cancer cell death or apoptosis, and inhibition of cancer cell proliferation.(11)

The efficacy of cannabinoid anticancer activity depends on their ability to stimulate autophagy-mediated apoptotic cell death.(12) According to the available literature data, autophagy inhibits malignant transformation in the early stages of tumor development. However, in advanced stages of tumor progression, autophagy provides energy for the increased demands of tumor growth, enabling tumor cells to resist cytotoxic therapy and cell death. A series of experiments conducted on glioma, melanoma, and pancreatic and hepatic cancer cell lines confirmed that activation of autophagy by cannabinoids leads to cell death.(13-16)

It has been shown that THC exerts antitumor effects in melanoma cells by autophagy, not only by activation of ER stress but also by TRIB3-dependent inhibition of Akt/mTORC1 signaling, resulting with apoptosis.(14)

Moreover, the authors identified stress-regulated protein p8 (a candidate of metastasis) as an essential mediator of cannabinoid antitumor action and demonstrated the proapoptotic role of stress protein p8 itself by upregulation of ER stress-related genes ATF-4, CHOP, and TRB3.(15)

Furthermore, an interesting hypothesis given by Massi et al. suggests that the concomitant use of CBD and 5-lipoxygenase (LOX) inhibitors could be very effective in the treatment of tumor growth.(18) Namely, they revealed that CBD (cannabidiol) exerts its antitumor effects through modulation of the procarcinogenic (LOX) pathway, which possesses a fundamental role in cancer development, and fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), the main anandamide-degrading enzyme, while decreasing anandamide content and binding to CB1 cannabinoid receptors. This new model suggests a possible interaction of these routes in the control of tumor growth,(18) expressing U87 cells, compared to wild-type controls.

CBD, which has a relatively low affinity for cannabinoid receptors, also triggers apoptosis via enhanced production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), resulting in an increase in the antioxidant enzyme activity.(18) Moreover, it has been shown in glioma cells that CBD causes a dramatic drop in mitochondrial oxidative metabolism and modulates extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and ROS pathways associated with apoptosis initiation.(2,19,20) Furthermore, as shown in oral cancer, CBD inhibits oxygen consumption in the mitochondria via receptor-independent mechanisms.(21)

McAllister et al. also reported that cannabidiol modulates signaling patterns related to ERK and ROS.(23) These modulations lead to downregulation of Id-1 expression. It has been shown that Id-1, an inhibitor of basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors, is a key regulator of metastatic potential in cancers. Also, CBD upregulates the pro-differentiation factor, Id-2. The efficacy of CBD was demonstrated on breast cancer cells in vitro through inhibition of invasion, as well in an immune-competent mice model through significant reduction of primary tumor mass and breast metastatic foci. Moreover, reducing Id-1 expression with CBDs could also represent a strategy for treatment of other aggressive cancers since a mechanism for Id-1 upregulation and consequent progression has been found in almost all solid tumors.(22-24)

In summary, cannabinoid treatment of tumor cells modulates signaling pathways inducing cell cycle arrest, apoptosism and/or inhibition of angiogenesis and metastases.(7,25,26) In addition to modulating a variety of physiological processes in the cell, cannabinoids and their receptors are also involved in many processes important in cancer cells, such as proliferation, invasion, adhesion, and motility.(2) Through all these processes, cannabinoids exert antitumor activity, suggesting their possible application as antineoplastic agents.(22,27) […]

From The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine: Bogdanović Višnja, Mrdjanović Jasminka, and Borišev Ivana — Medical Faculty, University of Novi Sad, Oncology Institute of Vojvodina, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia and the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Environmental Protection, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia.

IF, a big if at that. If Sessions bothers to show up he has the law on his side. It doesn’t matter if the original law was based on politics. Its the law on the books or the law of the land.

I would ask what proof the DEA has in maintaining the #1 scheduling. That is where it started. On a temporary base until the Shafer Commission report was complete. Then it was blackballed off the media and market shelves.

As I said, no proof airplanes can’t fly, other than speculation that they are too heavy. If we didn’t or still don’t question laws without the burden of proof as to why they are laws. Then fascism will continue to rule in the name of protecting the kids they circumvent the Constitution for, logic and common sense.

So imo Sessions doesn’t have to appear as long as the laws are there for all to see. As bogus as the laws are, we are supposedly a country of laws. Its really not that hard to believe, Men could legally rape their spouses until the late 1980s. Now the alt reich wants to ban contraceptives as well as all abortions. It was and could potentially go back to banning women from voting. Or segregation. As the Ganjawar permits in many cases. Especially disenfranchising voters. Or piss tests and 3 strikes and mandatory minimums.

All legal laws and as Unconstitutional as the drug war. Laws say 14 year old girls can marry in Ohio and WV, Laws said blacks couldn’t eat at the counter or vote without paying a Poll Tax. Laws are only as good as the policy makers write them. Now with the Christian Coalition writing laws it will probably get more fascist than less. Profits over people and sinners never prosper or profit in their eyes. Slavery was the law of the land until the Industrial Revolution made them more expensive than a tractor. Take a Knee!

The idea that smoking cigarettes has anything to with smoking pot is the #1 ridiculous story of the year. Now Cigarettes are the gateway to pot.

“Kids who think marijuana is “safe” are more likely than their peers to use the drug. That’s a concern because more and more, teenagers do believe pot is fairly harmless — and experts say it’s not.”

Teens are more aware of the truth concerning marijuana than ever before. For experts to worry that marijuana might be perceived as the harmless drug that it really is shows how twisted government thinking has become. Truth no longer matters.

“There’s good evidence, he explained, that when teens believe pot is safe, they’re more likely to use it in the next year.”

The unspoken fact here is that these people are suggesting that to lie about marijuana to the kids is somehow acceptable, the truth being the thing to be feared. Since kids know more truth these days about marijuana than ever before, it must be the cigarettes that are to blame.

Some say smoking anything is bad for you. If this is true, then it might be true that drinking a glass or two of water will kill you because it is a liquid just like bleach, therefore logic proves water is dangerous like bleach because it is a liquid. Just like everyone who eats mushrooms or berries die from eating them, simply because mushrooms and berries are known to kill.

Constellation Brands, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, is an international producer and marketer of beer, wine and spirits. Constellation is the largest beer import company measured by sales, and has the third-largest market share (7.4 percent) of all major beer suppliers.

Based in Victor, New York, Constellation has about 40 facilities and approximately 9,000 employees. The company has more than 100 brands in its portfolio. Wine brands include Robert Mondavi, Wild Horse Winery, Clos du Bois, Franciscan Estates, Kim Crawford, Meiomi, Mark West, Ruffino, and The Prisoner. Constellation’s beer portfolio includes imported brands such as Corona, Modelo Especial, Negra Modelo, Pacífico, as well as Ballast Point and Funky Buddha. Spirits brands include Black Velvet Canadian Whisky, Svedka Vodka, Casa Noble Tequila and High West Whiskey. Wikipedia

Why would you care about STZ? Last week the company bought a 9.9% slice of Canopy Growth Corporation (TSE:WEED) for just under US$200 million. STZ also received an option to increase the stake to 20% on demand. The event pushed CGC to a market cap of US$2.3 billion which moves it decisively into nosebleed territory.

No, I’m not bragging. CGC left my portfolio when its market cap passed US$1.5 billion. Neither do these events make me regret that decision. I will have to re-evaluate how much weight I give to a company which changes it’s ticker symbol to a buzzword. It’s a magnificent indicator of a company which is actually engaged in the business of selling shares of company stock to the gullible for inflated prices.

It’s hard to believe when you talk to her now but, four years ago, Lucy was confused, falling down and speaking gibberish. She often lay in bed and would make no eye contact with her family or friends.

Her daughter brought her to a neurology clinic where specialists ran diagnostic tests and looked over all of her medications. They said the problems were not with her prescription drugs.

“They came back with a diagnosis of advanced dementia,” said her youngest daughter Tania Hanson DeYoung, adding “We thought we’d only have her for another six months.”

Enter Eloise Theisen, a geriatric nurse-practitioner who specializes in medical cannabis. Theisen is on the team at Green Health Consultants.[…]